Pocket Universe

And so begins my favorite day of the year! All winter long, I look forward to the day when Daylight Savings Time kicks back in. I think of it as saving an hour of daylight from the morning (when I am either asleep, busy, or too tired to appreciate it), and giving it back to me in the evening. But of course, maybe I think of it that way because that is exactly what it means. In any case, thus begins the glorious six-month period of late-evening sunshine that I love so much!

Flash poll: Do you enjoy Daylight Savings Time as much as I do, or are you some sort of black-clad dark-loving goth loser freak? I would appreciate any thoughts on either side of the issue.

In the �give credit where credit is due” department, I need to point out some of Bill Maher�s statements when he appeared with Wolf Blitzer on CNN.

MAHER: And I said, that�s not fair, because, first of all, I�m not a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. I have a lot of positions that are conservative. And I�ve also been supportive of President Bush now that I think Iraq is turning around.

I�m one of those liberals who said, you know what? You can�t work backwards from, I hate Bush, from everything he does, says and smirks, to, here is another bad thing he did. I said, you know what? This is turning out OK in Iraq. He had a bigger and better idea than the most of us. And you have to give up credit for that.

…

…but, on the other hand, this plan with the Middle East, I do think it is taking root. I do think that we may have reached the tipping point and there�s no turning back.

And this is the guy who nobody else was looking to do this. Not one other person in America was saying, you know what? After 9/11, we have got to go into Iraq. It�s just that he lied to get us there.

Of course, he spends a lot of time hedging his statements, compliementing Bush and then suddenly acting like it�s sarcasm, stuff like that. And he spends a lot of time with the whole �Bush lied” canard that has been beaten to death by now. But however he may try to disguise it, he does admit that things are turning out all right in Iraq, and that Bush had a vision for the future that many other people lacked. Of course, maybe he�s just covering his own hide for when things turn out all right in Iraq, so he can say, �No, no, I supported Bush!” But I do think that he is giving Bush a fair amount of credit for the good things that have happened with Iraq, and I think it is worth pointing that out.

For those interested parties, Tiger will be released on Friday, April 29. Mark your iCal.

There is a lot of buzz today, as everyone is talking about the earth-shattering events of this morning. Of course, I�m talking about the new World of Warcraft 1.4.0 patch! Besides a few new world events and a bunch of bug fixes (including a new Succubus character model), the big change is the new Player versus Player Honor System, which provides rewards for honorable kills of opposing players. You can read all about Blizzard�s philosophy about PvP, specifics about the new honor system, and some of the various player rewards you can earn.

For the Apple faithful (or anyone who is interested in a next-generation operating system), Mac OS X Tiger is available today. Apple Stores will have an event from 6 pm to midnight, so you may want to get in line now! While you’re waiting, you can discover the operating system’s new features, read Ars Technica’s always excellent in-depth review, find out about the lawsuit over the Tiger name, or look at the various downloads that already take advantage of the new OS functionality (including a Dashboard widget for searching your Delicious Library media). You might also want to read Slashdot, which provided links to many of these articles, and also offers reader commentary on each.